OpenXcom Forum
OpenXcom => Playthroughs => Topic started by: Wimples on May 12, 2018, 08:45:11 pm
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I probably would not host in on Youtube since I'm don't have a channel. I could do screenshots and after-action reports.
I like to play with the FMP, but I want to add these limitations:
1. No avalanche missiles
2. Only 50 scientists (Does anyone know how long it would take to research everything? I'm guessing 2-3 years.)
3. No Plasma, Fusion, Rail or Gauss tech. Nuclear laser tech will be the go-to once it is researched.
4. UFO Extender Accuracy - no auto-shots across the map.
5. TFTD damage models
6. No Hyperwave Decoders. (This is personal. knowing the alien type inside the ship takes the fun away.)
7. No psi-amps.
Research limitations:
1. I cannot skip tech levels. All advanced weaponry, then alien alloy tech, lasers, gauss., etc. Alien explosive weaponry (grenades, elerium bombs, and rockets, etc.) can be used or researched (if I get lucky on a data slate or leader) once I am finished with alloy tech.
2. Alien corpses must be researched immediately. Live aliens can be researched at any time after the corpse.
3. Alien data slates can be researched at any time for things like medi-kits, psi-labs, etc.
The Goal: I'm going to be seriously behind in research by March and will probably be using default weaponry + alloy tech for a long time. It's going to be a trial of survival for the 2-3 years it takes to get to Cydonia.
Every soldier will get grenades and a melee weapon. I'm thinking of adding the following classes:
1. Demolition (no more than two) (Rocket launchers with pistol sidearm)
2. Heavies (Heavy/Auto cannon, machine guns, etc)
3. Grenadiers (shotguns will be default firearm)
4. Riflemen
5. Snipers (no more than two)
Roles can change depending on aliens encountered. Like flamethrowers for base defense missions involving cyberdiscs....
Anyone interested in volunteering?
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Private Reaver, reporting for duty!
(I got voluntold)
(https://www.memecreator.org/static/images/memes/2949905.jpg)
I'm a weakling but I have spirit.
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Behind the 8-Ball: After Action Report #1
The Adventures of Wimples and Private Reaver
(I'm not sure how to post screenshots using the forums. Could someone kindly direct me?)
Our initial skirmishes between our Interceptors and their small craft ended with 3 destroyed UFOs. Our scientists researched motion scanners shortly before our first mission against a landed UFO. It was shaped like a square, and that is when we met them. The grays...
After smoking the LZ. Private Reaver was immediately shot and went unconscious. Fortunately, we were able to revive him and treat his three life threatening injuries pronto. The two aliens staring up in our craft were quickly dispatched by Private Clark and random rocket dude #1. A third alien was eliminated by means of a grenade thrown by Private Wimples.
Quick to return to the fray, Private Reaver spotted an alien, but his injuries caused him to miss the shot. RandomRocketDude#2 cleaned up afterwards.
There were a few close calls on this mission. We learned the grays are not to be taken lightly. Garber almost got shot, and Clark ended the mission by smoking the last gray with a shotgun.
We sent Private Reaver to the hospital, and expect him out of the infirmary with a couple of weeks.
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(To post screenshots use the [ img ] http://www.website.com/image.png [ /img ] tags. To see how someone else did it, use the quote function to see their tags and other HTML or CSS code.)
See? I told you I had spirit!
(Don't let me out of the infirmary early. I'll try to walk with injuries.)
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Thanks! Can I use the img tag to link to pictures on my pc or does it have to be uploaded to the web?
I"m not used to Sectoids running right up to the ramp and shooting in very often. I couldn't evacuate due to stuff staring at me.
I've got really bad luck with retaliation, so we might be hiding in rooms melting cyberdiscs that float by soon...
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After Action Report #2
The Adventures of Wimples and Reaver (Hospitalized for 16 days)
January 13
We need to figure out how the aliens are seeing through smoke. One hostile gray aimed what we think is a plasma rifle and indiscriminately fired inside the aircraft. Fortunately, we were all on the ground save for Random Guy #3, who died.
Ground Mission #2 was a craft that survived the crash completely intact. We're confused how that happened, but were able to clear the site around the UFO with only one casualty. Poor Random Guy #3. We will miss him. The craft was a small, three level ship that we suspect has some access to the roof. We kept trying to throw proximity grenades on the top, but our aim was off and it kept bouncing off the side. We'll need to warn the destruction team when they arrive on site.
Our motion scanning technology came in really handy when venturing inside the craft. We found a large lift-area. We could not throw proximity grenades in the middle, but we were able to kill a couple hostiles while safely outside the door. They seem to patrol in certain ways, so we stayed outside the door and pushed in and killed them one by one.
We've set our scientists to researching a gray corpse. Maybe they'll come up with something useful for us.
We could use more recruits.
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Sign me up! Starving Poet is up for whatever role needs filling.
Sent from my LG-H872 using Tapatalk
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Quick to return to the fray, Private Reaver spotted an alien, but his injuries caused him to miss the shot.
That's definitely why I missed the shot. Certainly has nothing to do with me playing Laser Squad when I should have been on the shooting range.
I was found at the range in the middle of the night unable to walk back to bed. What was I doing out of the infirmary? The world may never know. Hopefully this incident won't add too many days to my bedrest time.
You should give Starving Poet a rocket launcher.
Thanks! Can I use the img tag to link to pictures on my pc or does it have to be uploaded to the web?
Click Attachments and other options to post from your hard drive. If you post one of the recognized image formats, people will see the image here. But to make it large, you must post it from the web. You can use Imgur (http://www.imgur.com/) to upload images to the web for use on forums and such.
P.S.: can you post the AAR docx?
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Reaver - I'll upload to imgur. I'll create an account before going much further so we can have picture goodness. The next mission was a total riot. I had to reset halfway through because Starving Poet lit himself on fire and died...
Also - 20% chance of alien retaliation seems to be 100% for me, at least in January. The next mission was a base defense, but it wasn't against Sectoids...
The Adventures of Wimples, Private Reaver (Hospitalized for 16 days), and a Starving Poet:
Mission 3: When Poets Warn of Danger
January 13th - literally two hours after mission 2.
On our way back to the base we found a man banging on the front of our door. At first we ignored him, but he started telling us how he spotted weird crafts flying around the area. Knowing that our radar did not detect everything, we grew suspicious.
And then it happened…
The biggest alien craft we ever saw landed. Right. Next. To. Our. Base! In a panic, we drug the newcomer into the base with us and began emergency evacuations. Not having time to evacuate him as well, we enlisted Starving Poet into the ranks.
He had the misfortune in hiding inside our storage facility located right next to the hangar and the access bay. All he could find before diving for cover was a flamethrower, submachine gun, and a proximity grenade. I sure hope he ends up ok.
We expected grays, which we were not very scared of at this point. Physically, they were weaker than we were. Although they had fast reflexes and reasonable accuracy, if this was the best the aliens had to offer then we were in for an easy war.
What we got instead was giant, two legged furry monsters and these weird, red aliens with capes that could float. Scientists called them Floaters. We still haven’t figured out why they wear capes… we suspect the furries bite, but they did not make it close enough to do any damage and were too dumb to open the doors where we were hiding.
Proximity grenades worked very well against these invaders. Starving Poet also earned himself a home after taking out one with a proximity grenade and another with a flamethrower. He also killed three of the furries before running out of ammunition. You would think aliens wouldn’t create something so vulnerable to fire…
It wasn’t long until we started hearing shooting in the hangars. None of us were in there, but the next group of floaters ventured into our defense zone unarmed. It was pretty stupid of them to do that.
It got very quiet after the last two furries walked into proximity grenades. We ended up clearing the few remaining floaters in the hangars. 25 kills overall, no deaths or injuries. Starving Poet was awarded the Bolt’s Cross, but the alien died shortly thereafter. We don’t know how to keep them alive in our environment.
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I should probably retire now, I'm never going to beat that performance.
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You can and you will, damnit!
Starving Poet, recruit to top rank faster than Kirk in Jar Jar Abrams' film?
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Starving Poet, recruit to top rank faster than Kirk in Jar Jar Abrams' film?
He'll have to make it past Captain Clark. One of my best friends irl who is having a very good campaign with shotguns and grenades...
I added the images in the AAR3.docx. Still working on doing something like imgur.
I should probably retire now, I'm never going to beat that performance.
I'll try not to get any of us killed. Motion Scanners have really helped. What worries me are the Cyberdiscs I'm sure I'll find on the first terror mission. And the mind control on the Lab Ship. Maybe I'll get lucky and one or both will be floater missions.
The Adventures of Wimples, Private Reaver (Hospitalized 15 days), and a Starving Poet
AAR #4: Landing Site #3
January 14th, 1999
Much Ado about Floaters
We decided to give Starving Poet a Rocket Launcher. He seems to specialize in heavy munitions, and has the strength to carry stuff nobody else wants. The day after our base defense we detected another UFO in the sky. Our Interceptor was scrambled to shoot it down, but it landed first. I wonder what is in store…
We loaded into the Skyraider and landed close by. Like really close by. Next to a UFO type we had not engaged before. Remembering our lessons from the last mission, we all quickly exited the craft to find…nothing. We decided that the need to secure the ship was a higher priority than scouting around first, and split the team into two groups. Motion scanners really paid off, as we were able to gun down all five floaters within the ship without any surprise. The ones outside the ship were handled as well, with Starving Poet getting a kill. Wimples tried to get another, but can't hit the broad side of a barn (he even missed the wall behind the floater...). We'll need to work on accuracy somehow. That floater got fragged by Captain Clark.
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The Adventures of Wimples, Private Reaver (Still hospitalized), and a Starving Poet
AAR 5: Landed Mission 3
January 23rd
It’s really dark at night time.
It's the third time I am typing this report. The lack of sleep and having to perform emergency surgery on a comrade has really taken its toll. The fact that the gray was waiting for us to round the corner before opening fire was a surprise to us. Before this they would randomly wander around and get themselves shot. Now it seems like they are taking us more seriously. We will have to exercise extreme caution, as their flanking and traps almost got us killed.
We managed to clear up the squad of eight on this large scout without any deaths. I really wish the scientists would research weaponry instead of corpses. I feel that we are not maximizing our potential...
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I'm liking the docx format. If it works for you it works for me.
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I'm liking the docx format. If it works for you it works for me.
I'm having fun with it. It lets me tell a story as I go along. I'm already annoyed at my research limitations. I'm stuck researching a reaper corpse instead of stuff that helps me kill things. Nobody is strong enough to start flinging high explosives around yet. One of the tougher baddies to fight will be the laser tanks from MiB. I'll have to smoke areas and then sneak up with flamethrowers or alloy swords. Fortunately, alloy ammo lets me kill most things, and the rest I can get with a flame thrower or sword. I'm guessing the +adds damage from strength is a one to one correlation, where the sword does 50 damage + x, where x = strength. I've one-shot a Sectopod this way with a soldier with 70 strength. Getting close can be a chore.
The cool thing about this playthrough is I've got enough grav modules to give everyone flying personal armor. My usual strategy is to avoid being shot at altogether, so nobody has armor at this point. Being able to fly let's me take advantage of sniper and rocket launching positions.
No updates today. Would like a few more volunteers if anyone wants. Once I go Skymarshall I'll need 16 soldiers.
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I'm stuck researching a reaper corpse instead of stuff that helps me kill things.
You got unlucky getting sectoids and floaters combined so early on, and in terror missions/base attacks. But there's a thing you can do: if you see any new alien types, don't just kill them, blow up their corpses, too. Can't research what doesn't come home. Call it Sergeant Wimples making a tactical decision. You could even seed in some tension and conflict within the command structure leading to this insubordination, and an attempt to explain it off to command as necessary for X reason/event that happened in the field. I was aiming for the live snakeman, but I guess the rocket missed and hit the already dead snakeman behind me instead.
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You got unlucky getting sectoids and floaters combined so early on, and in terror missions/base attacks. But there's a thing you can do: if you see any new alien types, don't just kill them, blow up their corpses, too. Can't research what doesn't come home. Call it Sergeant Wimples making a tactical decision. You could even seed in some tension and conflict within the command structure leading to this insubordination, and an attempt to explain it off to command as necessary for X reason/event that happened in the field. I was aiming for the live snakeman, but I guess the rocket missed and hit the already dead snakeman behind me instead.
Lol! I reserve the right to blow up chryssalid corpses. I've seen them get stunned, get up and get blown up by proximity grenades and still survive. I should have advanced weapons by the end of February and alloy stuff by April if I don't miss my guess. That'll be about the time Snakemen, Gazers and the rest of them come on the scene. Hopefully I have some flying armor by then.
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"The exo-skeleton of this creature is...surprisingly vulnerable to explosive ammunition." This is the sort of valuable research we're getting by studying the aliens.
In Vanilla, Chryssalids take base damage from explosives but have 34 armor including under armor. This means a 70 damage explosive hit does 36 damage, while a 50 damage explosive hit does only 16 damage. The minimum damage a proximity grenade can do to them is 1, but with a health of 96, they can stun with 15+ health left. They can get up almost dead and still be tougher than your own soldiers.
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They have the same armor as cyberdiscs, iirc. I need to produce a compendium of what armor all the new alien types have (Gazers have 50 in front, spitters 45 in back, etc). I tried a single battle last night for the ethereal order and mutons (obliterators), but the psi skill on the best troops isn't high enough to mind control anything super tough. I'll have to wait for them to appear on my other playthrough where my soldiers are almost maxed.
What I wish we had in the FMP was an advanced proximity grenade. 95 or 100 base damage as an explosive. Researched after alien grenades. Cost of 1 elerium to produce. It'd be a nice upgrade, similar to elerium rockets over large rockets and alien grenades over regular ones.
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The game needs a proximity high explosive, alien proximity grenade, and proximity blaster charge. The proximity blaster charge should be particularly expensive and have a small blast radius so it only kills the thing that stepped on it.
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The game needs a proximity high explosive, alien proximity grenade, and proximity blaster charge. The proximity blaster charge should be particularly expensive and have a small blast radius so it only kills the thing that stepped on it.
Sounds good.
The Adventures of Wimples, Private Reaver (Back in action), and a Starving Poet
January 29th.
We had two engagements since the last time I was able to write. The first was a few floaters inside the fastest small UFO we have ever recorded. We couldn't get close to shoot it down, but it did land in Spain. We lost a soldier to injury, and I almost died after the floater tanked two of three shots from me before I was able to shoot more. We really need heavier weaponry...
We welcomed Private Reaver back into the fold and immediately detected a small UFO landed in Spain. Why Spain, we will never know. It was the middle of the stinking night again, and the grays were ready for us. Immediate fire drew our attention to not one or two, but FOUR grays right outside the craft to our left. Rockets from Nunnery and Starving Poet disposed of them all, fortunately. We were able to clean up about eight aliens before randomdude#4 was shot and killed. Private Reaver, feeling good after killing one gray, tossed a flare to expose the perp. I was able to put him down with a carefully aimed shot. He eventually woke up later to be gunned down by Reaver.
After the Reaper corpse was researched I immediately split our scientists into two groups: Tactical Sniper Rifle and Heavy Cannon. We are producing some rifles now, and they promise me that heavy cannons will be shortly behind. From there I plan to split them on auto cannons and advanced rocket launchers. That should keep them occupied if we meet a new group of aliens. From there we will need to research topics that help us develop a containment area so we can start capturing and interrogating live ones. I'm suspicious our scientists are unionized, and not in a good way. Upper level management is keen on making sure we sell every piece of alien equipment we get lest we research that and use it against the aliens themselves. I smell a rat...
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No terror mission or Lab Ship in January, meaning I'll likely see both in the beginning of February.
Find the January Monthly Summary attached, along with soldier stats.
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So the Lab Ship is going to be a do-over...
The first turn went like this:
Starving Poet - under alien control. (It's always the one carrying the rocket launcher...)
Second turn: We all got out of the ship, lost a guy to reaction fire after kiling one and hitting a second. Killed the second Sectoid. Starving Poet killed a second guy with reaction fire using the rocket launcher. He gets mind controlled again and then kills captain clark and himself. Reaver then goes berserk and blows himself up with a poorly aimed high explosive round from a heavy cannon...
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My true colors have been revealed.
Sent from my LG-H872 using Tapatalk
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I finally got a promotion! I guess I'm a PFC now? I'm enjoying how long I was still a rookie. If you don't hire too many more soldiers, I might get stuck at squaddie rank.
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I finally got a promotion! I guess I'm a PFC now? I'm enjoying how long I was still a rookie. If you don't hire too many more soldiers, I might get stuck at squaddie rank.
I'm not sure whether to staff soldiers in my expansions or just use my one team to intercept as many missions as I can. If I go with the budget cut theory then I'd just have one squad of troops for everything and you'd remain squaddie for eternity.
I'm still trying to figure out how to assault a Lab Ship. Going inside was a squad wipe. The people upstairs had better firing angles than I did. I may just hang outside and snipe everything to death like I usually do. I could always chuck proximity grenades up the lift to thin the ranks and then try getting in... I've got four out of ten people that aren't being messed with psionically...of the six that were, two are dead, two are in the Skyraider and Reaver and Starving Poet are wandering around the forest.
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The Adventures of Wimples, Private Reaver (currently insane), and a Starving Poet (also insane)
AAR 8: Why is my mind jelly?
Landed Lab Ship
We finally faced a true threat from the grays. This was the second biggest ship we had seen, only to the ship that landed and assaulted our base mid-January. It was shaped like a giant steering wheel. Our soldiers reported panic attacks right away, and were unequipped or given tasers without ammunition. The situation became critical very quickly, as five of our soldiers became ineffective, running around the forest without weapons like chickens with their heads cut off. It became 5 on....however many aliens were inside the ship.
One of the first aliens we killed had a golden ring around its head. We do not know the significance, but the mental attacks slowed somewhat after it was killed.
Not having the manpower to enter the ship and clear it, we stayed outside and listened for the door to open. Each time it did we sniped the aliens. After awhile two more of our soldiers became mentally unstable. One of them died, while the other one was able to drop their weapons before succumbing to panic.
We have learned that once we killed nine to ten aliens that the aliens themselves will start panicking. This worked in our favor as aliens walked out one by one without weapons. We gunned them down. Once the aliens were dead the mind attacks stopped. This is a seriously disturbing development.
Our managers were extremely happy with the results of the mission, as we made 3.6 million dollars from the sale of the aliens and their stuff. Their love for money is going to get us all killed at some point...
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I'm not sure whether to staff soldiers in my expansions or just use my one team to intercept as many missions as I can. If I go with the budget cut theory then I'd just have one squad of troops for everything and you'd remain squaddie for eternity.
You might want to staff soldiers in your other bases in case they get attacked. On the other hand, if "budget cuts" lead to one of the interception bases being lost, the ensuing insurance fiasco with the aircraft company will probably cause command to sort something out.
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I could always stuff them with HWPs. I have yet to use any in this playthrough.
Latest mission was Hybrid/Alien meeting. Two more corpses to research, then containment, then alloys.
Or should I include Alien Entertainment/Food/Surgery/Examination Room as part of the corpses that must be researched first? Choices, choices.
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The Adventures of Wimples, Private Reaver, and a Starving Poet with explosives
AAR 9: Outnumbered 5 to 1
Alien/Alien Hybrid meeting
Something is seriously messed up. Our next report of alien activity was slightly outside of London. Rather than a UFO, we landed next to a mansion. A mansion full of aliens shooting....human weaponry? The aliens sort of looked like us as well. I'm not sure what is going on, but it seems like the alien threat started long before the UFOs we started spotting in the past few years. For a force of this size to accumulate that much weaponry and a large house unnoticed is an amazing feat.
Fortunately, these hybrid aliens are terrible shots and even worse soldiers. We took some shrapnel hits, and Starving Poet got shot in the head multiple times, but nobody died. Starving Poet will be in the infirmary for awhile. There were no less than fifty aliens with four grays mixed in. We did get attacked mentally a few times, which leads me to suspect that the grays had some leaders on site. We will need to capture one eventually.
With such a target rich environment, it was a good time to test out our new explosive weaponry: Heavy Cannons and Advanced Rocket Launchers. They performed extremely well. I want to see how they fare against armored targets at some point.
Starving Poet recorded 10 kills this mission, even with his head wound.
Private Reaver killed 7, and I killed 10.
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That's absolutely insane! I guess they were trying to keep a low profile, that would explain why they had only Earthbound weapons. I take it they didn't expect to get found. Our agents are good for something, after all. Maybe the Commander knows what he's doing, maybe he has some big plan we just don't understand.
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The next mission they weren't trying to keep a low profile
The Adventures of Wimples, Private Reaver, and a Starving Poet (Injured 2 days)
AAR 10: Things Just Got Ugly
Terror Mission 1: Paris
We had never seen the aliens attack a city before. Thinking about things on the flight home, maybe we shouldn't have waited until daylight. But I wonder how many more soldiers we would have sent home in body bags. We lost two random people and Phwoosh this round. Phwoosh was a true friend and hero, and we awarded her the highest of honors posthumously. Many of our good soldiers were wounded in the assault on the mansion. I wonder if this was a setup. We are also hearing of heavy alien activity in the Pacific, but we do not have bases or AWAC coverage of the area at this time. Budget cuts, they say...
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The Adventures of Wimples, Private Reaver (injured), and a Starving Poet (injured for an extended time)
February to March report (I got a good bit of playing time in. February was mostly out in the Pacific, which I ignored. I got a terror mission and one more elsewhere. March was focused in South Africa with the Cthonites. Nothing major happened except Reaver keeps getting shot. I'll have decent armor soon...)
Our research up to March 25th unlocked several areas, including utilizing Alien Alloys to upgrade our standard armament. I decided to go with ammo first, and then armor and aircraft. We will see how long it takes.
Our second terror mission involved the grays. I hate the grays. They brought along buddies as well, which seem relatively well armored. Our advanced weaponry was still able to take them down, with medium effort.
Our Production base in Antarctica is halfway operational and starting to add to our income. We were able to start working on a base in South America.
The main instigators of March was a new alien: Chtonites. They seem to be more armored than Grays or Hybrids, but they can't fly like the floaters. We ran across them in two missions in South Africa where our AWAC was patrolling. Reaver took some damage and had to be patched up later. That is when they struck a city. We lost a soldier, but found the Chtonites nothing to write home about. Their accompanied unit appears to be a big blob of molten rock that...eats people. Regular ammunition proved ineffective, but explosives worked well. Their undersides appear to be particularly soft, as our grenades did a large amount of damage.
I hope to have all of the alien alloy technology unwrapped by the end of April. If our scientists can be believed, we will have advanced aircraft, interceptors, armor, bullets and melee weaponry. They will probably want to research the new alien first, however. Once that is finished we can take a look at some of the strange equipment we keep finding on their craft.
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This playthrough is over. My .sav somehow got deleted in the middle of the game. Could not save in the backup mode or whatever it switched to. Decided for a clean reinstall.
Edit: Now that I've done a clean install I'm starting over. I'll post missions once I get myself caught up research-wise.
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Sad to hear. Well I had fun! 8)
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Sorry to sound harsh, but having just one save for a campaign is just begging for trouble.
No idea why you people do this, it should be obvious to everyone...
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I keep one save in most games without problem, but I maintain 3-4 in X-Com. So far in OXC I haven't needed them, but the memories of the past which drove me to this point remain.
A few games actually prevent me from keeping backup saves, or make it difficult. Pokémon, FTL: Faster Than Light, Minecraft...
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Sad to hear. Well I had fun! 8)
We will try again soon. I'm going through a bit of a transition in life at the moment.
Sorry to sound harsh, but having just one save for a campaign is just begging for trouble.
No idea why you people do this, it should be obvious to everyone...
Noted. I learned my lesson.
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So I had to start over. It is now August in the game. We're about 30 missions in, roughly.
A 50 scientist count really starts dragging out after awhile. We just now were able to research Elerium, and are starting on larger Gauss weaponry. We have encountered Cthonites, Anthropods, Sectoids (lots and lots of Sectoids....), Floaters, Reptoids, Snakemen and now the MIA. We have radar and troop coverage in the Northern Hemisphere and South America, where the Sectoids seem to live.
The Sectoids took over South America, and we lost Brazil. They then took over South America again twice more, but forgot to build bases the final two times. A daring base raid allowed us to capture Commanders, Leaders, Medics, Navigators, Soldiers and 0 Engineers. We caught a Snakeman Engineer later, so our research is pretty much set for the next year. The order goes like this:
Alien Soldier -> Unlocked Research -> Navigator -> Unlocked Research, Engineer, Leader, Commander, etc. I figure we'll be done with the Navigator and mid-game aircraft by the end of August. We might get Gauss and Laser tech by the end of September. Then it's on to whatever order of advanced tech the leaders and commanders unlock.
After Action Report: Don't bring a tank to a swordfight.
We've been at the same tech level for three months. Inroads into alien power sources and elerium have yielded little results, and our paltry team of scientists is growing frustrated by the day. The world now worships the aliens, so recruiting more scientists is impossible. Fortunately, alien alloy tech has allowed us to overcome everything we have faced so far. Anything super-tough fell to our large rockets and heavy explosives.
We received reports of a terror attack in North Africa, and quickly flew across the sea to intercept. What we found waiting for us was not aliens, however, but humans. Their armor was similar to ours, except they lacked the ability to fly. We quickly used that to our advantage, popping up over buildings and fragging most of them with grenades. Their weaponry included weaponized laser technology attached to heavy weapons platforms, and gauss rifles. I'm curious how their technology is on par or more advanced than ours, but we were not able to capture anyone alive to interrogate. Our gauss research has yet to yield anything small enough to carry onto the battlefield.
We ran into a problem with their placement of tanks. It seems like they built the tanks in place inside buildings too small for them to escape. Two were found in a stable, one in a farm house, and the other in a small warehouse. The stables was destroyed from explosives, and those two tanks were felled by well placed high explosive charges.
The other two were very limited in mobility, and a couple of our soldiers, Reaver and Starving Poet, decided to see if Alloy Swords were able to puncture the armor of a tank. Their daring experiment proved a success, and we felled the last two tanks via sword. If we run into armored targets in the future, we can rest assured that simply walking up to them and hitting them with swords is the way to go!
End Report.
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It is now the end of September. Who knew that Gauss Defenses and Gauss Cannon would take 25 days to research? And the Ironfist, Thunderstorm and the other craft would take 25 days? We are now at Alien Laser Rifle, with Origins and alien Navigator afterwards.
AAR: 9/30/2018
August was a month of activity in South Africa. September was a month of activity in the Arctic (Cthonites), North America (Sectoids and MiB), and the monthly Sectoid Parade in South America.
The Sectoids, for who knows what reasons, have decided to perform what appears to be infiltration missions in S. America. Brazil folded several months ago, but that does not stop them from doing it again and again each month. We have now dubbed it the Sectoid Parade. It involves several small ships, a supply ship, terror ship and two Battleships. They make a big show around the continent, land and then take off. We get our choice of what ships to assault, and it ends with free loot every time.
More unnerving are the activities in N. America by the MiB. They started sending in their larger ships on missions, and our alloy tech is slow to take down their armored soldiers. The Tac Sniper Rifle does well, as does explosives, but alloy rifle and shotgun rounds are becoming less effective. Our main team has amazingly high reactions and shooting accuracy, so this has not been a problem. Our second team is not quite as fortunate. We're getting close to losing troops, and I fear what will happen if they go through another tech advance before we are able to catch up...
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Break through!
November Report:
We were finally able to upgrade our weaponry with the addition of laser tanks and gauss rifles. Gauss gives us a major damage boost against the alien threat, and the breakthrough came after interrogating an Alien Engineer. Our scientists are excited to get their hands on more Engineers, and we have a whole lot of them in holding tanks.
We ran into a new type of alien which proved incredibly resistant to any armor piercing weaponry we had: Gazers. The infiltrated India, which became the second country lost in the war. Their heavy armor proved effective against our alloy bullets, and the gauss weaponry was not much more effective.
Ironically enough, alloy swords were incredibly effective, providing we could get close. Fortunately, Gazers are slow and stupid, often facing the wrong way. We took out the base in late November.
We are waiting the November edition of the Sectoid Parade, but are currently battling on multiple fronts.
1. In Central Asia we have floaters patrolling the area, most likely due to us shooting down their aircraft. We now have a stock pile of grav modules.
2. In South America the Sectoids are also patrolling in an attempt to locate our base.
3. We have had what we think are Hybrid convoys in Australia, too far for us to reach before they disband. The hybrid is a recently new enemy we face, and their use of human weaponry and methods is disturbing.
It is now December, and our scientists are busy researched handheld laser weaponry. We expect to interrogate more engineers and navigators afterwards in search of how the alien technology works. Maybe we can start using their own weapons against them.
Stats:
Private Reaver:
Maxed: Health, Time Units, Stamina and strength.
Missions: 44, Kills: 63
Reactions: 97
Firing Acc: 96
Throwing Acc: 78
Melee Acc: 81
Favorite weapon is a shotgun, followed by Alloy Sword
Starving Poet:
Maxed: Health, TU, Stamina, Strength
Missions: 37, Kills: 28
Reactions: 78
Firing Acc: 94
Throwing Acc: 81
Melee Acc: 59
We are on UFO 173 starting in December.
Personal Notes:
Reaction training works best after you can fly and sit behind UFO doors. Otherwise, take advantage of Silacoids and their slow reactions to get a boost. Once you are in the 60s and have enough accuracy to snap shot a shotgun at 80% or greater, you can start camping outside the door of slower reacting aliens. This is NOT recommended against Gazers. They take a bunch of shots to go down.
Everything I have fought so far is vulnerable to high explosives and large rockets. Ethereals, Mutons, Chrysallids, Cerebreal and Waspites have not come on the scene yet.
Alloy swords are a great equalizer against armored targets
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Sorry, ladies and gentlemen.
I made a grave error in only assigning 50 scientists to this playthrough. I made it to February of 2000 and hadn't even made it to interrogating anything beyond an engineer. Simply put, I got bored. I think I was at UFO 400 or something.
If anyone wants to try, I recommend 75 or 100 scientists just to avoid the drain.
I may try again with a slightly less psychotic set of rules.
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Consider which mods you are using and how they change things. 50 scientists is a good amount for vanilla, because the science was too easy. But many modders recognize this and change the science such that it is not so easy to get too many scientists. In those mods, you would be expected to continue hiring more scientists as you gain the resources to do so.